IMUS IS BACK!!!

Picture courtesy of MSNBC

I’ll say it again, IMUS IS BACK!!!

I am so freaking glad that Don Imus is coming back on the air! If you have ever had that grumpy old fart grandfather like figure that takes no crap then that is Don Imus in the nutshell. Past guests of his such as Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and Presidential Candidates have suffered the grumpy old man with his blunt and direct approach. God help you if you called in and the Iman was having a problem breathing.

Bernie, Charles, put the damn burial shovels away and grab that hammer and start pulling the nails out of the Iman’s coffin. Somebody find out where his teenage wife Deirdre is and tell her the Keg Fest is over. She has to push the wheel chair up close to the microphone and wipe his mouth when the spittle from his rant of bitching out a United States Senator goes just a little to far.

Over at the Washington Post they have this to say about Don Imus settlement with CBS Radio…

Imus Settles With CBS; Next, a Comeback?

By PAT MILTON
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 14, 2007; 6:18 PM

NEW YORK -- Don Imus overcame a major obstacle Tuesday in his widely expected comeback bid, reaching a settlement with his former employer that allows him to return to the airwaves at a new station four months after he made a sexist and racist remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Imus and CBS Radio agreed to a settlement that pre-empts the fired radio personality's threatened $120 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS, the company and Imus' attorney said in a statement Tuesday.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Just before his dismissal, Imus signed a five-year, $40 million contract with CBS.

The announcement essentially makes Imus a free agent, and broadcast industry experts say he will be back on the air soon enough.

"I've been comparing this to a divorce, now both parties are able to move on," said Tom Taylor of radio-info.com, a sounding board for news and information about the radio industry.

Where Imus might land next is still up in the air.

A person familiar the situation told The Associated Press that Imus has had informal talks with several broadcasters, including WABC in New York, about a possible comeback. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks, and it is unclear how serious the discussions were _ given the fact that Imus' CBS contract was still under dispute. - Washington Post

Apparently, the righteous Al Sharpton thinks that he played a large part in Don Imus being fired by CBS Radio. Somebody needs to tell the Reverend that his ego isn’t big enough to span the Hudson river. Al Sharpton had as much to do with the firing of Don Imus as you or I do when stuck in traffic and screaming at a red light to turn to green.

There is only one person responsible for Don Imus losing his job at CBS Radio and that was Don Imus. Then again, the woman he insulted at Rutgers chose to forgive him so in the Christian world that is supposed to end it. I still think Don Imus is a shock jock but I like his format and his interview skills with the people that flock to him. I’ll be listening to his broadcast in the morning drive and laughing all the way to work. What will you be doing?

Welcome back to the airwaves I-Man! Now get off your lazy cranky butt and start entertaining my sorry hard working butt. Your damn vacation is over and it is time to talk to the nine million loyal listeners you once had.

Charles, Bernie, keep them shovels at the ready. We might need them soon if he screws up again.

Papamoka

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Imus and CBS go to War!

Don Imus of the former Imus in the Morning radio show is taking on the oppressors of freedom of speech over at CBS Radio and packing some heat with a top notch legal shooter from New York. This is where the road travels when it comes to the shock jock that was loved for the revenue he could bring in to CBS Radio and the definition of a contract meets the judge.

This fan of Imus supports the fight for what is right and if the man had a contract for $40 million then CBS Radio was making ten times that much off of him or would not have signed a five year deal. There are no “But, or what if’s” in a legal contract. As I have said before in this blog, Don Imus is not a fool and the lawyers he hired to review his contract when he signed it were probably smarter than the CBS Radio lawyers that drew it up.

Over at CNN Money they have this to say…

Imus won't go quietly

The talk show host has hired a top First Amendment lawyer, and an unusual clause in his contract could give him a $40 million payday, writes Fortune's Tim Arango.

By Tim Arango, Fortune writer
May 2 2007: 12:48 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Don Imus, the tousled and acerbic radio host whose racial remarks engendered a media storm that triggered a swift upending of his career, is not going away quietly even if the imbroglio has all but disappeared from the national conversation in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.

For Imus, who made a career out of operating in the murky space between sophomoric humor and high-brow political talk, there is the little matter of about $40 million left on his contract with CBS Radio - whose boss Les Moonves fired the shock jock on April 12. CBS' lawyers contend Imus was fired for cause and not owed the rest of the money.

But Imus has hired one of the nation's premiere First Amendment attorneys, and the two sides are gearing up for a legal showdown that could turn on how language in his contract that encouraged the radio host to be irreverent and engage in character attacks is interpreted, according to one person who has read the contract.

The language, according to this source, was part of a five-year contract that went into effect in 2006 and that paid Imus close to $10 million a year. It stipulates that Imus be given a warning before being fired for doing what he made a career out of - making off-color jokes. The source described it as a "dog has one- bite clause." A lawsuit could be filed within a month, this person predicted.

A CBS spokesman declined comment, and Imus, through his attorney, also declined an interview. – CNN Money

Tough bastards like Don Imus simply do not fade away because Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson beat the hell out of his bosses at CBS Radio. The network hired him because he is and was always the ultimate controversial entertainer and they ran like school girls when threatened by a couple of bullies. They can run all they want but they can not hide from the fact that they were the ones that signed on the dotted line to put the mouth of Don Imus on the airwave for $40 million bucks over the next five years! The firing of Don Imus was political correctness gone wrong to the ultimate power mathematically and somehow it is okay? It isn’t okay with me.

If the people he insulted had the mercy in their hearts to forgive him when he begged and pleaded for just that then the situation was resolved. In the days of the Salem Witch trials, once you were labeled a Witch you were guilty till they burned you death. Only then was your soul cleansed. If that is America today then we as a nation have something bigger to worry about than a shock jock with idiotic off the cuff racist remarks. Then again we in the media and blogosphere burned, hanged, electrocuted and sentenced to death Don Imus already.

There are so many people out there today in the public spot light that are just out right liars to themselves and to the people and yet they can do no wrong. No matter what mistakes any of us have made it is understandable to hope and pray that your mistakes did not hurt another person. If they did, then Rehab is the easy way out for mega media stars but Imus didn’t do that. He faced his comments and apologized profusely. He did it from his heart and that was not good enough for CBS Radio or his detractors. It was good enough for me and I’m sure that Mr. Imus is comfortable with the forgiveness of the young ladies of Rutgers. As for his battle with CBS Radio…

Go for the jugular I-Man! Go for the jugular!

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring It On!

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Imus Gone but not Forgotten

Don Imus screwed up and he became the target of everything that is racism in America. He was an easy target. He was a nationally syndicated talk radio giant amongst a field of diverse opinions politically.

One man lead this charge to stone Imus without considering if the people he offended with his comments would or could forgive Don Imus. The Reverend Al Sharpton beat this horse to death and ended the livelihood of Don Imus and his family.

But, big old hairy butt, the Reverend Sharpton now speaks out of the other side of his face in saying that this was never about Don Imus but about the abuse of our nation’s airwaves. Come again with the comments demanding Don Imus being fired Reverend Sharpton?

The outstanding athletes of the Rutgers young womans basketball team have forgiven Don Imus. If they can find it in their hearts to forgive him then the issue should be closed as the good Lord tells us. Then again Al Sharpton still has a week or two worth of stones to toss at Don Imus and needs this event to carry on. Publicity for Al Sharpton is the game he plays and he can have it. People can see that the emperor is naked!

Don Imus is a wealthy man by ordinary standards and I hope and pray that he and his wife will be able to continue the Kids with Cancer ranch activities. Being a private charity I would hope that people will still donate to the fun that kids enjoy and labor at for a stay at the Imus ranch. This isn’t a venture for self promotion but an outreach to bring children hope. I would love to see the Imus people submit a list just with the number of kids that have benefited from the good work that Imus and his family do for sick kids. Then let’s compare it to what Al Sharpton has for a list. No comparison is needed. Imus wins out across the board. MSNBC who canned the I-Man has this little piece on the Imus family personal charity...

By DEBORAH BAKER
Associated Press
(Picture Courtesy of MSNBC)
Updated: 4:42 p.m. PT April 14, 2007

RIBERA, N.M. - Don Imus's banishment from the public airwaves also deprives him of a critical platform to raise money for the sprawling Imus Ranch, where children with cancer and other illnesses get a taste of the cowboy life.

Before he was fired last week for calling the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos," Imus pointed to the northern New Mexico ranch to make his case that he is "a good person who said a bad thing."

With Imus out of a job, some wonder whether the pipeline to charity money will eventually dry up.

Snip

General Motors Corp. said Friday it would continue donating Chevrolet Suburbans for the ranch.
The Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey provides the doctors, nurses and "child life specialists" who attend every ranch session.

"While there is no excuse for these comments, we cannot overlook all of the good he has done for families of Bergen County and across the nation," the medical center said in a statement.

The nearly 4,000-acre ranch, at the foot of a mesa about 50 miles from Santa Fe, features a re-creation of the main street of a 19th-century Western town, a swimming pool, an indoor horse-riding arena, an outdoor rodeo arena, and barns.

Kids between 10 and 17 who have cancer or serious blood disorders, or who have lost siblings to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, spend seven days at the ranch in the summer, when Imus would broadcast from a studio there at no cost to their families. – MSNBC

Racism in America has to be addressed and I will never waiver on that fact. Pointing the finger and stoning someone out of existence is not the answer. Pointing the finger and asking someone to change is the answer. CBS Radio and MSNBC caved in to the hype and lost the message and their messenger at the same time. Corporate cowardice once more rears its ugly head. Then again, so have the many celebrities, news reporters and government servant friends of Don Imus chosen to shun him and distance themselves from him rather than defend his pleas for forgiveness.

America needs to focus on Americans and not on issues that will forever divide us if the messengers that are the supposed standard bearers speak for all of us. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson do not speak for all of America. African Americans need to think that they are Americans first and heritage comes second. Nobody else in this nation is Irish American, Polish American, German American, Mexican American, Brazilian American, and the list goes on.



Be an American and be what you can be as an American. Saying that you are an African American is a proud thing to claim but it is a cop out. You are either an American or not and that is just one solution to ending the racism in our nation. I am an American! That is a statement that I would prefer to defend at any cost to my own personal well being. “I am an American!” Say it with pride and you are an American.

The only one holding any of us back as Americans and no matter what race or creed is ourselves.
If Don Imus has lost his voice in defense of his own personal ignorance in our nation then we all need to talk about racism amongst ourselves in order to wipe it out. It is within each and every single one of us to take the steps needed to end the idiocy that is racism and racist comments. We need to look within our own hearts and minds and toss out the stereotype mentality of our fathers, father. America is populated by so many cultures and so very diverse of people that we need to focus on the big picture that is our children’s future. We all need to take turns stirring the great melting pot that is America and be willing to be a part of the bounty that is the greatest experiment mankind has ever known. We all need to recognize that being an American is bigger intellectually and spiritually than where our ancestors came from. We can do this and be a better people and be the beacon of hope that our nation is known for around the world.

Papamoka

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